Ed Murray/The Star-LedgerAmong the artifacts displayed is the original clay mold used to mint the first 1913 issue Indian Head or Buffalo nickels.

Dig deep enough beneath the asphalt parking lot of the Woodbridge Center mall and you will find a vein of brown, pliable clay -- remnants of an old clay pit that fueled a thriving industry in Middlesex County in the last century.

There are few traces left of the clay pits and factories that churned out bricks, delicate terra cotta architectural details and ceramic vases, but a small exhibit at the Woodbridge Town Hall is displaying artifacts from that long-gone industry.

In two display cases flanking the main hall, the exhibit features a large platter-size clay mold for the 1913 Indian head nickel, a terra cotta dummy bomb from World War I, ceramic tiles spelling "Jersey" from a Route 9 bridge, and colorful cups and saucers.

The exhibit, presented by the Historical Association of Woodbridge Township and the Woodbridge Township Historic Preservation Commission, will be open to the public until the end of this month. Mayor John McCormac, council members, local history experts, and residents with ties to the clay industry recently celebrated the opening of the showcase last week.

Andrew Nagy, a 73-year-old Fords resident, and his wife Shirley Nagy, who were at the exhibit opening, still remember when clay was important to Woodbridge and other towns in the county, such as Sayreville and Perth Amboy.

After he graduated from high school in 1952, 16-year-old Andrew Nagy worked as an apprentice draftsman for Perth Amboy's Federal Seaboard Co., one of the biggest producers of terra cotta for the construction industry. They made building cladding material with classical details.

In the turn of the last century, John Gursaly, the grandfather of Nagy's wife, worked in the Cutter clay pit off Amboy Avenue, near the New Jersey Turnpike in Woodbridge. Gursaly, a Hungarian immigrant, joined his compatriots digging up clay to send to factories all over the county.

Stephen Kermondy, a 71-year-old Fords resident, also had Hungarian grandparents who worked at the Sand Banks pit, where Woodbridge Center mall now sits.

"They dug it with pitchforks and all kinds of things," Kermondy said. "They used to dig clay by hand, not like they do now by tractors."

The clay and terra cotta industry thrived because the area is interlaced with rich clay beds that were formed by the slow and steady movement of glacier, rivers and streams.

At the industry's peak in the 1920s and 1930s, there were dozens of factories churning out bricks, tiles and pottery in Middlesex County. But the industry suffered a decline after the Great Depression and when modern architecture became the prominent style for public buildings.

After the post World War II boom, the clay pits that marked the landscape of the county were eventually given over to suburban development. The Sand Banks was paved over for the Woodbridge Center in the 1970s, said Jeff Huber, president of the Historical Association of Woodbridge. The Cutters pit, which started in 1845, closed down in the 1930s.

"As I grew up in Woodbridge, now it's totally changed," said Shirley Nagy. "There's nothing you can do about progress."